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Construction and Building Materials 16 (2002) 8389

Service life of building envelope components: making it operational in


economical assessment
Claus Rudbeck
Rockwool International AyS, Hovedgaden 584, DK-2640 Hedehusene, Denmark
Received 4 April 2001; received in revised form 6 August 2001; accepted 9 January 2002

Abstract
Recently, standards and guides have been developed to assess the service life of buildings. During design and operation of
buildings, focus is mainly on the cost of constructing and operating the building than on its service life and tools; making service
life operational in economical assessments are therefore needed. Development of such a tool is performed after a description of
the current standards and suggestions for their improvement. Use of the tool is illustrated by performing an economical assessment,
including the effects of service life, on an innovative low-slope roofing insulation system. The assessment reveals that the
innovative roofing system has a lower total cost than traditional systems as it is prepared for repair and maintenance. 2002
Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Service life prediction; Economical assessment; Prepared for repair and maintenance

1. Introduction
During the last 10 years, national standards have been
developed in order to assess the expected service life of
building materials and constructions and work is still
progressing at the international level. Besides the current
and upcoming standards, several methodologies have
been developed or suggested at the national, international or individual level. By using these standards or
methodologies, designers can estimate the service life
of material or components or estimate the risk of failure
throughout the entire life of the material or component.
However, during design or operation of buildings, the
building designer or operator is more focused on the
cost of constructing, operating, maintaining and replacing components than on the service life of these components. Therefore, tools that can translate service life
related parameters into economical terms are needed.
2. Standards, guides and methods for assessing service life
2.1. National standards
Service life prediction or demand for durability has
been treated in numerous countries in their standards
E-mail address: claus.rudbeck@rockwool.com (C. Rudbeck).

and building codes. Of the available standards and


building codes, the following three are the most known:
JapanPrincipal Guide for Service Life Planning of
Buildings w1x.
Great BritainGuide to Durability of Buildings and
Building Elements, Products and Components w2x.
CanadaStandard S478: Guideline on Durability in
Buildings w3x.
The Japanese guide states that service life may be
predicted for the whole building, parts of the building
or its elements, components or equipment. The end of
the service life is determined by physical deterioration
or by obsolescence. Assessment of physical deterioration
is based on an assessment of the deterioration level at
the end of the service life and the length of the service
life. Based on these values, an annual physical deterioration, valid for one climate, can be calculated. Calculation of the predicted service life under other stresses
(level of use, climate etc.) and with other material
qualities is performed by including factors in an equation
which links the predicted service life to the reference
service life. The reference life is added to or multiplied
by these factors, which describe the influence from
environmental agents, quality of work, quality of materials etc.

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C. Rudbeck / Construction and Building Materials 16 (2002) 8389

The British guide recommends that service life is


attained by reference to previous experience with a
similar construction, measurements of the natural deterioration rate or results from accelerated tests. It is
recommended that more than one approach be used, as
the methods may be imprecise. There is a lack of
information regarding whether or not one method is
superior to the others. Another issue not being addressed
is the possibility of calculating service life for a structure
under one set of conditions using information for other
conditions.
From the beginning the Canadian guide drew on work
done during the development of the BSI guide, but in
due time evolved in width and depth. Unlike the other
two guides, the Canadian guide also includes renovated
buildings. Information is given regarding when to use
which service life assessment method and whether more
than one method should be used. Like the BSI guide,
the Canadian guide does not offer calculation routines
for calculating service life.
2.2. International standards
At the international level several organizations (ISO,
CIB, RILEM, EOTA and ASTM) are working with the
assessment of service life. Work in ISO is conducted in
ISOyTC59ySC14 Design Life with the aim of developing an international standard series titled Building
and Constructed Assets-Service Life Planning of which
six parts are planned. These are titled:
Part 1General Principles
Part 2Service Life Prediction Principles
Part 3Auditing
Part 4Data formatting
Part 5Life Cycle Costing
Part 6Environmental Sustainability
Of these, the first part of the ISO-15686 series w4x
describes the method for calculation of the Estimated
Service Life for a Component (ESLC) based on a
Reference Service Life of the Component (RSLC).
According to the ISO standard, the RLSC should be
based on experience, building codes or test results. To
obtain the ESLC under specific conditions, the RSLC is
multiplied with several factors, thereby taking into
account quality of materials, design, site work, indoor
and outdoor environment, operating characteristics and
maintenance level. In short, this approach is often
referred to as the Factor method.
In the joint venture between CIB W80 and RILEM
TC-140 Prediction of service life of building materials
and components, the focus was on integration of existing prediction and service life techniques, tools and
methods with information technologies being developed
for the construction industry. To ensure integration of
state of the art regarding service life prediction a Guide
and Bibliography to Service Life and Durability

Research for Building Materials and Components w5x


is to be developed. Besides treating service life prediction, the guide offers a long literature list with a short
description of the referred publications. Work in the
successor CIB W80yTC-175 is performed in four task
groups named: damage functions and environmental
characterization, factor methods, information technology
and reliability and probabilistic methods.
Another group in CIB, namely CIB W94 Design for
Durability, aim to develop a design methodology which
makes it easy for designers to include durability and
service life prediction in the design process. Likewise,
the focus in CIB W94 is on the production of guidelines
for presentation of research results in publications, which
will ease the communication between researchers and
practitioners.
2.3. Individual recommendations
The standards are not the only available information
regarding service life prediction, as a number of
researchers have developed methods which are based on
either a structural engineering approach, a probabilistic
approach or methods that are further developments of
the deterministic approaches which the national and
international standards are based on. A survey of methods belonging to any of the three approaches was
performed by w6x. The following conclusions were
obtained:
Structural engineering approach: Although the relation
between the structural engineering and service life prediction has been recognized, none of the examined
structural engineering approaches reveal a potential for
further development.
Probabilistic approach: Two probabilistic approaches
are described, one approach using a mathematical function (Weibull) to describe the performance of a component over time and one approach using discrete
Markov chains. The latter of these two have successfully
been used to predict the performance through time of
road pavement and bridges. However, one major disadvantage with using Markov chains is that the method
requires a large number of similar building envelope
components which are subjected to the same climatic
influences, a demand which cannot be met very often
in the building sector as almost every building is a
prototype, being different from other buildings.
Deterministic approach: Variations of the method
specified in the Japanese guide and a later ISO standard
have been described and examined, e.g. by w7x. Instead
of using modifying factors, the variations introduce
statistical functions to describe the influence of the
indooryoutdoor climate, quality of materialsywork etc.
and as such combine the deterministic and probabilistic
approach.

C. Rudbeck / Construction and Building Materials 16 (2002) 8389

3. Discussion of standards and guidelines


As seen from the previous chapter, different methods
exist which can be used to assess the service life of a
building component under specific environmental condition, usage patterns etc. Common to all the described
methods is that measured performance through time for
components is needed to determine the accuracy of the
methods.
The two approaches, deterministic and probabilistic,
both have their advantages and disadvantages. Once
developed, deterministic methods in the proposed format
are easy to use as they only require that a designer can
assess the influence of the different factors by using a
small table and that the designer can perform simple
arithmetic operations. However, the result of using one
of the deterministic methods is an exact service life of
a building, which is not correct as service life of identical
buildings can best be described as a stochastic distribution. The probabilistic methods are opposite the deterministic methods with regards to the result of the
methods and the usability. Even when information necessary for using the probabilistic methods are present,
the methods are very computing intensive, and it is
therefore not an easy task for a designer to perform a
service life assessment for a component. However, as
probability is included in the methods, this is reflected
in the results of the methods so the designer can see
average values and spread for the service life of a
component.
An issue that does not receive much attention in any
of the guides and standards is the coupling of the service
life of a component to its economical performance. The
impact of the service life on the economical performance
of a component is growing in importance as parts of
building codes and regulations are changed. An example
on such a change is found in the public-funded buildings
in Denmark, where total economy is to be used as a
performance assessment tool w8x. Using this approach it
is possible for a designer to use more expensive components during the construction phase if subsequent
economical savings can be proved later on during the
life of the building.
4. Suggestions for improvement of standards and
guidelines
As the economic performance of building components
is an important factor, and as the economic performance
of the components is strongly linked to the service life
of the component, improvement of standards and guidelines should include the link between assessment of
service life and assessment of economical performance.
Assessment of the service life of buildings or components may be performed using methods based on
probability or so-called Factor methods. As both of

85

the approaches have advantages and disadvantages, a


natural conclusion would be to combine parts of the
two methods into a Factor method where probability
has also been included. A combination of these two
approaches has been proposed by w7x and described in
detail by w6x. The basis of the method is that the ESLC
is calculated as being the RSLC multiplied with a
number of factors, as proposed in w4x. However, unlike
the ISO standard, the factors are not constant numbers,
but instead stochastic distributions of the influence of
the different factors. The result of using the method is
therefore an ESLC given as a stochastic distribution.
The stochastic distributions that describe the influence
of the different deterioration aspects on components are
not developed yet, but can be when data of sufficient
quality and quantity are available.
5. Translating service life into economical terms
Based on the outlined approach it is possible, with
relative ease, to calculate the estimated service life for
a component. However, for many of the actors in the
construction phase and operation phase of a building,
the focus is on having a building which fulfill the
specified performance levels while still having a low
cost. It is therefore important that the service life of a
component can be translated into economic terms. Basically, this is done by combining the proposed service
life assessment method with a tool called net present
value (NPV) calculation, a tool which is well-known
and well-used in all kinds of economical assessment.
NPV is a method which allows the user to discount all
costs to a base time thereby taking into account inflation,
increase in price level etc. The method makes it possible
to compare the total cost of components with different
distributions of cost of investment, operation, maintenance and replacement through time. NPV of the total
cost throughout the life of a component can be assessed
using Eq. (1).
NPVTCsNPVInvestmentqNPVOperation
qNPVMaintenanceqNPVReplacement
yNPVResale

(1)

where NPVx denotes the NPV of the different parts


(investment, operation, maintenance, replacement and
resale) of the cost through the life of the component. It
should be noted that maintenance covers traditional
maintenance of components which is performed at
regular intervals, e.g. repainting, window cleaning etc.
Substitution of one component with another, e.g. reroofing, is treated as a replacement. It should also be
noted that the resale value is often referred to as the
scrap-value of the component, i.e. the value of the
component at the end the assessment period, which,
under Danish conditions, should not exceed 30 years
w8x. However, as the service life of the building may be

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C. Rudbeck / Construction and Building Materials 16 (2002) 8389

longer, say 60 years, this should also be reflected in the


calculations.
As the cost of the component can be expressed as
costs occurring at single predetermined points in time
(investment and resale) or costs occurring with a certain
periodicity (operation and maintenance), equations for
calculation of NPV of these costs is easily found in the
literature, e.g. w9x. However, cost of replacement, which
is the final part of Eq. (1), does not occur with a certain
periodicity or at single predetermined points in time.
Instead, replacement of a component is performed at the
end of its service life, thereby requiring a link to the
methods of service life prediction.
For a given component, the stochastic distribution of
the ESLC has to be calculated using results from
experiments before the NPV of the cost of replacement
can be assessed. Following the construction of the
stochastic distribution a Monte Carlo simulation is used
to predict the point in time where replacement is needed,
an information which can then be used to calculate the
cost of replacement expressed as a NPV. The principle
of a Monte Carlo simulation is that a large number of
random numbers (representing an equal number of
identical constructions) are inserted into the stochastic
function with the result being the service life of all
these constructions. These results are then used to
determine the point in time where replacement of the
component takes place and the associated NPV of the
replacement cost. In theory, this is performed for an
unlimited number of components to improve the quality
of the cost calculations. The total assessment of the
NPV of the replacement costs is performed by completion of the following steps:
1. ESLC (added to ESLC or previous components) is
compared to the service life of the building. If the
sum of ESLC is higher than the service life of the
building, go to step 4.
2. NPV of cost of replacement of component is
calculated
3. Go to step 1
4. Sum of NPV of replacement of component during
the life span of the building is added and stored for
later processing
5. New identical building is considered, and the calculation starts from step 1 unless a sufficient amount
of calculations has already been made. In that case,
go to step 6
6. The results from step 4 are compared and further
processed
The result from the six steps described above is a
series of NPV of replacement costs for the component
during the life span of the building. An example of such
a series of values will be shown later on.
Such a series of NPVs is a valuable piece of information regarding a component as the series show the

Fig. 1. Section showing the normal build-up of a low-slope roofing


insulation system using a concrete deck and rigid insulation boards.

minimum replacement costs and the maximum replacement cost throughout the life of the building (or another
specified period). The financial consequences of unexpected replacements through a period can therefore not
come as a surprise for the clientyoperator and money
can then be set-aside early on for replacement. It is the
same mentality that lies behind insurance: The policy
owner is insured against financial disaster by setting
aside money (paying the insurance premium) in time.
6. Including service life in an economical assessment
of a dryable low-slope roofing insulation system
To illustrate the use of the method which has been
described, the methods has been used to assess the
economical performance of a dryable low-slope roofing
insulation system, an economical performance which is
then compared to the performance of a traditional lowslope roofing insulation system.
6.1. Description of traditional low-slope roofing insulation system
Low-slop roofing insulation systems are often used
on commercial, institutional or industrial buildings, as
the use of pitched roofs would pose severe difficulties.
If pitched roofs were to be applied to large industrial
buildings, the construction of such roofs would be
difficult especially with regard to the valleys, which are
needed to collect and transport water to the gutters.
Low-slope roofs are constructed with layers of mineral
wool or polystyrene insulation being placed on top of
the deck which is normally made of concrete or steel.
A section of a typical build-up of a low-slope roofing
insulation system is shown in Fig. 1.
The normal application of a low-slope roofing insulation system begins after the completion of the deck.
To hinder vapor transport from the inside into the
insulation, a vapor retarder is placed on top of the deck.

C. Rudbeck / Construction and Building Materials 16 (2002) 8389

87

Table 1
Investment costs for different parts of dryable roofing system with 195 mm insulation
Building materialycomponent

Euroym2

Low slope roof insulation system incl. vapor retarder and roofing membrane
Moisture indicator produced in strips placed per 1 meter on the roof
Inlets and outlets for ventilation system
Construction of grooves in the insulation panels
Total costs

61.2
0.3
0.3
2.2
64.0

The vapor retarder maybe either a polyethylene foil or


a water permeable vapor retarder. On top of the vapor
retarder, the thermal insulation is placed. To carry
physical loads from activities at the roof surface, rigid
insulation is preferred. The last part of the system is the
roofing membrane, which acts as a water and vapor
barrier.
A typical failure for low-slope roofing insulation
systems is if the roofing membrane is penetrated, thereby
making it possible for water to enter the insulation layer.
As the insulation is located between two vapor tight
layers (the vapor retarder on the underside and the
roofing membrane on the topside) the water has no
means of escaping from the insulation if a traditional
vapor retarder is used. Rudbeck w6x identified three
possibilities of repair in case of such failures, but neither
of these would reduce the future risk of failure for the
system. These three possibilities of repair included
replacement of the entire insulation system, addition of
new insulation and membrane on top of the existing
construction and installation of roofing vents.
6.2. Description of dryable low-slope roofing insulation
system
A way to improve the performance of a low-slope
roofing insulation system is by its two major problems,
i.e. detection of moisture and facilitation of excessive
moisture removal.
As seen in Fig. 1, the insulation is applied in several
layers to decrease air movement and to increase workability. Water that enters the insulation system will
normally locate itself in the insulation layer just above
the vapor retarder. To detect if excessive moisture is
present in the insulation system, thin metal wires are
embedded in the vapor retarder in parallel, and a
measurement of the electric resistance between such two
wires can then be used as a detection system. If metal
wires in the vapor retarder are unwanted, they can also
be incorporated by construction of coaxial-like cable
with a metal core, a metal screen and a moistureaccumulating material in between. Such a cable may
then be applied at points of special interest. To facilitate
the removal of moisture, grooves are created in the
down-facing side of the lowest insulation panel. If
excessive moisture is detected in the insulation, forced

ventilation with outside air is applied to the grooves.


The size of the grooves is 30=50 mm so they decrease
neither the thermal nor the structural performance of the
insulation system w6x. Investigations using numerical
modeling and experiments w6x have also proved the
drying capabilities of the system.
6.3. Economical parameters for low-slope roofing insulation systems
As suggested previously, an economic assessment
should include a calculation of the NPV of the total cost
for a building component for a specific period. Calculation of the NPV of the total cost is performed using
Eq. (1). A number of assumptions are given for the
calculation of net present value
The real interest rate is 2.9% throughout the 60 years.
The energy price is 0.067 7ykWh throughout the 60
years.
Service life of membrane can be described as a
normal distribution with mean value 22 years and a
standard deviation of 7 years. This is based on
investigations by Marcellus and Kyle w10x.
Economical write-off of value of roofing insulation
systems is linear.
Resale value of roofing insulation system is not
included in the calculations as the roof is without
value at the end of the 60-year life of the building.
A small error is introduced as the resale-value of the
roofing membrane should be included, but the impact
on the net present value calculation is very small in
this case. If shorter building service life is used, the
resale value should be taken into account to avoid
error.
The cost of construction for the dryable roofing
system is given in Table 1 with the prices being obtained
from a Danish price book for building components w11x.
The investment cost of 764ym2 can be compared with
the investment cost of 761.2ym2 for a traditional low
slope roofing system. As the investment cost is due in
year 0, at the beginning of the service life of the
building, these values are also equal to NPVInvestment.
Net present value

1y1qreal interest rate.-life span.


sAnnual cost*

real interest rate


(2)

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C. Rudbeck / Construction and Building Materials 16 (2002) 8389

NPV of the operational cost for the two component


types, taking into account thermal loss through the
components, is assessed using Eq. (2).
The annual cost is based on calculation of the heat
loss through the component. Under Danish climatic
conditions the annual heat loss through a traditional
roofing insulation system amounts to 17.2 kWhym2 for
the traditional system and 12.9 kWhym2 for the dryable
roofing insulation system. Using Eq. (2), the net present
value of the operational costs may be obtained.
NPV of the maintenance cost is assessed using Eq.
(2) assuming the annual cost of maintenance, covering
visual inspection of the roof surface etc. to be 70.35y
m2.
NPV of the cost of replacement of parts of the roofing
insulation system is performed using the approach,
which was outlined, in Section 5. The cost of replacement of the roofing membrane and the insulation for
the traditional system amounts to 772ym2. Using the
approach outlines in Section 5, the net present value of
the replacement cost for the traditional system is found
to be in the interval between 723 and 7230ym2 with
the average being 772ym2. A visual representation of
the net present value of the replacement cost is shown
in Fig. 2.
Using a similar approach for the dryable roofing
insulation system, the net present value of the replacement cost is found to be between 712 and 7115ym2
with the average value being 736ym2.
The net present value of the total cost for the two
roofing systems is shown in Table 2.
The conclusion, after having compared the net present
value of the total cost of the two systems, is that the

Table 2
Net present value of the difference cost aspects and the total cost for
the traditional roofing system and for the dryable roofing system. Both
systems use 195 mm of insulation
Aspect

Investment
Operation (heating of building)
Maintenance
Replacement
Total cost

Net present value w7ym2x


Traditional
system

Dryable
system

61.2
21.2
9.8
72.0
164.2

64.0
15.9
9.8
36.0
125.7

dryable roofing system is to be preferred as it has a


significantly lower net present value of the total cost.
The difference between the costs of the two systems is
mainly due to difference in cost of replacement.
7. Conclusions
An overview of current methods and standards used
for predicting service life of buildings is given. A review
is provided that contrasts the less practical against the
more useful aspects of national and international standards and guides. One improvement needed in the
methods for predicting service life of building envelope
components is to include life-cycle cost assessment.
A method which links service life prediction with
economical assessment has been formulated. The method is based on a coupling of net present value assessment
and a service life prediction system. The service life
prediction system is the Factor method, found in the

Fig. 2. Distribution of net present value of the replacement cost for a traditional roofing insulation system during a 60-year period. The costs are
assessed using a Monte Carlo simulation.

C. Rudbeck / Construction and Building Materials 16 (2002) 8389

upcoming ISO-standard 15686, which has been extended


to include a probabilistic approach utilizing Monte Carlo
simulations.
The method has been used to assess the economical
performance of an innovative dryable roofing insulation
system for low-slope roofs. The system was designed to
be prepared for repair and maintenance in case of leaks
in the roofing membrane followed by water intrusion
into the insulation. The economical performance of the
system was compared with the economical performance
of a traditional roofing insulation system for low-slope
roofs. During the life-cycle of the under-lying building,
the innovative roofing system performed much better
with a lower total-cost being the result even though a
traditional economical assessment would have found it
to be more expensive.
References
w1x AIJ, The English Edition of Principal Guide for Service Life
Planning of Buildings. Architectural Institute of Japan, Tokyo,
Japan, 1993.
w2x BSI, Guide to Durability of Buildings and Building Elements.
BS 7543:1992. British Standards Institution. London, UK,
1992.

89

w3x CSA, Standard S478-95: Guideline on Durability in Buildings.


Canadian Standards Association, Rexdale, Canada, 1995.
w4x ISO, Buildings-Service Life Planning-General principles. ISOy
DIS 15686-1. International Standards Organization, Geneva,
Switzerland, 1998.
w5x Jernberg, P., Minutes of CIB W80yRILEM TC 140-TSLy
RILEM-SLM meeting in Capri, Italy May 1997. International
Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1997.
w6x Rudbeck, C., Methods for Designing Building Envelope Components Prepared for Repair and Maintenance, Ph.D.-thesis,
Report R-35, Department of Buildings and Energy, Technical
University of Denmark, 1999.
w7x Moser K. Towards the practical evaluation of service lifeillustrative application of the probabilistic approach, in Durability of Building Materials and Components 8: Service Life
and Asset Management. NRC Research Press, Ottawa, Canada,
1999. p. 131929.
w8x TRAMBOLIN, Program for calculation of total economy for
housing by calculation of present value (in Danish). Ministry
of Housing and Urban Affairs, Denmark, 1998.
w9x ASTM, E917-94 Standard Practice for Measuring Life-Cycle
Cost of Buildings and Building Systems. American Society for
Testing and Materials, PA, USA, 1994.
w10x Marcellus, R., Kyle, B., Towards better decision making for
roofing systems. URL ftp:yyftp.tech-env.comypubyReliablty
BetterRoofingDecisions.pdf, Internet document dated 1997-1220, (1998).
w11x V&S Prices. Buildings-Brutto (In Danish: Husbygning-Brutto).
V&S Byggedata, Denmark, 1999.

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